Westborough school committee wrestles with special education costs

Wednesday

Mar 7, 2018 at 10:00 AM

Tom Godfrey/Wicked Local Correspondent

WESTBOROUGH --- State Representative Hannah Kane will continue to push for more state aid for education in the form of increased Circuit Breaker funding. This promise came during an update presented by Kane and fellow representatives Carolyn Dykema, and Danielle Gregoire during the Westborough School Committee meeting on Wednesday, February 28.

Circuit Breaker is a state-level reimbursement program aimed at dampening the financial impact that special education programs have on school districts. Guidelines for the program say that the state should reimburse districts for 75 percent of the costs incurred per student that are above four times the base cost per pupil who is not in the special education program. How much the Circuit Breaker program is actually able to reimburse relies on the final state budget. The number under the recently released Governor's Budget is currently only 65 percent. That is a gap of $36 million according to Kane.

“We recognize that every dollar that we can get for education also helps the town as a whole because when you are figuring out how to fund your school budget that is also playing on your larger municipal budget,” said Kane. “We will do all that we can to ensure that we advocate for increases in education aid.”

The Committee also took time to express their concerns about the need for Chapter 766 schools to have more transparent tuition policies. Students within a school district are guaranteed an education. In instances where the district lacks the facilities or staff to provide the care needed for a student with special needs to receive a quality education, that student is then eligible to move to a special school outside of the district that can meet their needs. This is guaranteed by Chapter 766 of Massachusetts law and paid for by the district.

Superintendent Amber Bock said that while Westborough is fully committed to ensuring that students receive both the education and care that they need, regardless of their circumstances, the unchecked tuition growth of these facilities balanced against a lack of transparency has created what she called a “black hole” of information.

Bock noted that students, whether inside of Westborough schools or at a Chapter 766 school, could be in the program until the age of 22. With tuition and transportation costs of some schools over $100,000 annually, the costs add up over the years.

“We will of course commit to that cost,” said Bock. “But to have it increase in percentage in unexpected ways starts to feel like there is a piece of the conversation that we are not included in.”

Bock acknowledged that while the conversation about transparency in regards to Chapter 766 schools was an important one for all schools, Westborough benefits from a high number of programs that allow students to stay within the district and learn lifelong skills. One of these is the Borough program, which includes a store that will be run by students in the program and the profits from sales will benefit the school district, something will be allowed for by still-pending legislation pushed by the state representatives.